Family Matters
by Angry Acorns
Summary: Over the years, she had grown up into a beautiful young woman, and you had fallen for her. If only your father wasn't about to marry her mother. JohnRose one-shot.


Words: 851  
Pairing: JohnRose, with one mention of Dave/Terezi  
Verse: Post-Sburb

* * *

Your name is JOHN EGBERT and you are nervous and uncomfortable as hell.

Currently 17 years of age, you have survived the game and resumed to a relatively normal lifestyle, as normal as one could afford after having died alongside your friends, family and the rest of humankind only to be resurrected after your success. You and your father have moved from your suburban city in Washington state, and you now live in upstate New York, closer to your friend Rose and her mother, otherwise known as the woman who was to become your step-mother. Yes, it was true, your dad finally popped the big question, and Ms. Lalonde slurred an ecstatic "yes!" in response. You are happy for your father, really, you are. There was just one problem: You seem to have fallen for your future step-sister. You remember discussing this with Dave during the game, the possibly of your future (well according to Karkat's predictions) wife also being your sister. You were uncomfortable then by the prospect, and you weren't even sure you had feelings for Rose at that point.

You are currently sitting in your LIVING ROOM on a couch, and the previously mentioned ROSE LALONDE, sits on an armchair reading a book. She's grown to be quite a beautiful young woman, maybe not beautiful in the conventional sense, but none the less beautiful to you. Her hair is still the same blonde bob kept back with a headband, but she's no longer the petite 14-year-old she was. Her hips have filled out, her height has increased, and her face has matured from a puzzling, precocious-seeming baby face to the face of an intelligent and witty young woman. She still speaks with her lofty words and her sarcastic idioms that both confuse and enamor you. You smile to yourself just thinking about her.

"What's so amusing?" She asks. It seems your buck-toothed grin has distracted her from her book.

"Oh, nothing" You mumble nervously. She smiles back at you, her deep blue, almost violet eyes twinkling at you.

"Well, than I suppose I'm smiling for nothing also." She remarks. You adore her smile, the way her lips curve like the body of sly slithering snake.

"Rose?" You interject after a moment.

"Yes?"

You shallow. "Do you remember Karkat's shipping chart. The one I told you about, before..." Your voice trails off. Neither of you like to speak of that time.

She readjusts her position in her chair so she's sitting up completely straight. "Yes, yes I do." She comments. The smile returns to her face. "Is that what you're smiling about?"

You try to keep your cool. You give a sly smile in return. "No, not at all, I mean the chart was bullshit. Dave's nuts over Terezi." You rub your hands together nervously. "I was just wondering, I mean, I said this to Dave earlier, but uh, if our parents got married, how would that work out?"

"What work out?"

"The chart. Us, you know, being siblings."

She rolls her eyes with amusement. "John, if we were to get married, hypothetically speaking, it would be perfectly legal. You and I are not, and will not ever be, siblings. Different biological parents, so there would be no inbred babies between us. Just maybe a few confused and shocked looks from a ignorant friends and strangers."

Your lips part and your eyes widen. "So we could get married? It doesn't matter if our parents are married?"

"You seem very excited by this for someone who called the chart 'bullshit'." She remarks slyly.

"Oh." You say with surprise. "I was just surprised that it was legal. That's all. I don't want to marry you. Well, unless you want to marry me. I mean, uh-" You were caught, over-thinking your words, saying the wrong things as a result, only making it seem like you were even more eager to marry her.

"Well, John. I don't want to marry you." She comments quickly almost without any tone or mood in her voice.

You try not to let your expression fall. "Oh, okay." You reply.

She laughs a little, her nose crinkling with her giggles. "Because we're 17-years-old. We're too young and we have too much ahead of us to be thinking about getting married anytime soon." She tells you.

Your face lights up and you laugh. "Well, I don't know about having too much ahead of us, we've already got too much behind us."

She joins in your laugh. It was true, you had too much behind you. A few shared years in the past, marked with sadness and hope, life and death, friends and enemies. You grew closer to your friends, even when you lost them, only for them to return to you.

You look at her again after a moment. "So, if I kiss you right now, you're not going to diagnose me for some Freudian sister complex?"

"Only if you try to diagnose me first."


End file.
